One of the most frequent questions about the Mac OS I hear from Windows users is whether there’s anything like Time Machine for Windows.

I usually reply that Windows 7 has a pretty good backup program, though unfortunately it’s not nearly as simple to use as Time Machine, which basically has two setup steps:

Plug in an external drive.

Click Use as Backup Disk on the prompt that appears.

That’s pretty much it. From there, Time Machine makes a full backup of your hard drive, then checks for changes every hour and backs those up. Over time, it consolidates the changes into daily and then weekly backups. You can go back to any date and find a specific version of a file, or search the archive by name. This is quite useful: On my iMac, for example, I can go back as far as August 2009 to find an older file.

Time Machine does this without me having to do anything other than approve the setup. That’s how backup should be – simple and seamless.

And that’s how it may end up being for Windows users, once Windows 8 hits the streets. Winrumors has published screenshots showing the interface for a new Windows feature called History Vault, which was first discovered in late March. Though the interface looks rough – the image comes from a very early, leaked build of Win8 – it shows that Windows users soon will get a Time Machine-style backup system.

The feature will allow Windows 8 users to backup files and data automatically using the Shadow Copies function of Windows. The backup feature will include the ability to restore to a specific time or date on the system. Users will also be able to select files and restore them to different timestamps. WinRumors previously revealed the existence of the feature last month. Fresh screenshots are now emerging thanks to a recent leak of Windows 8 build 7955. The new screenshots show a special interface specifically designed for users to look back at previous files.

Windows has had the infrastructure for this since Vista, when Microsoft introduced a feature called Shadow Copies. This allowed for users to restore older versions of files, though you had to dig through a Windows Explorer-style interface to find them. The Winrumors screen shot makes finding backed up files by date much easier.

There’s no indication, though, whether History Vault will mimic Time Machine’s no-brainer setup process, which is what makes Apple’s backup system so useful. The slickest backup program won’t do you any good unless you actually use it, and confusing setup menus can be a deterrent.